TwitterAfter being stripped of her Miss Delaware title last month for being too old, Amanda Longacre is now suing pageant officials and the Miss America organization.
The 24-year-old states in the complaint filed earlier this week that she spent six months raising money for the pageant, had given the organization her driver's license, and was repeatedly assured she was qualified to compete.
Longacre added that the foundation told her they only learned that she was born in 1989 two weeks after she was crowned.
She was then told that as a result, she would lose her scholarship money and title.
She is seeking to be reinstated as Miss Delaware, $500,000 in damages for herself and $2.5 million for other contestants that she claim were recruited to compete in pageants before being told that they were too old as well.
The organization released the following statement in the wake of the lawsuit:
"This Miss America Organization supports the Delaware Organization's decision determining that Ms. Longacre did not meet the competition's age requirement."
It continued, "The Miss America Organization is committed to carefully and thoughtfully protecting the integrity of the competition process. To deviate from the rules of the process would risk the organization. Although we are disappointed to learn of the legal actions, we will plan to defend our position on the basis that this case has no merit.
"We also plan to provide the previously committed scholarship to Ms. Longacre as scholarship is core to our mission and respect Ms. Longacre's pursuit of her education."
Amanda Longacre's lawyer Mark Billion tells E! Exclusively that his client is "wounded" and "what is becoming increasingly clear is that an organization that she really depended on, enjoyed being a part of just has no [desire] to make it right in any shape or form. She just really saddened by that and dealing with what she sees is a level of betrayal."